


Sinking

by LukeVonCastiel



Category: Guild Wars, Guild Wars 2
Genre: Drowning, Gen, Minor Character Death, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Shipwrecks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-24
Updated: 2013-09-24
Packaged: 2017-12-27 12:54:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/979156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LukeVonCastiel/pseuds/LukeVonCastiel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Captain Ellen Kiel attempts to rescue a drowning child.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sinking

The world was whirling, a tempest of shouting and sinking, wind and water. The waves rocked the Cormorant as it floated in the sea, next to the sinking remains of the trader’s vessel. Somewhere close, she could hear the powerful voice of Captain Magnus, see a mixture of his and her crew preparing boats and lowering ropes into the water in an attempt to rescue the people on the sinking ship.

She knew that she should help. The Cormorant was not her ship, but her crew still followed her orders even as they stood on another’s deck. Yet her mouth couldn’t find the words as she stood staring out at the ship sinking in the wild waters.

Her ears shut out the sound of all other things as a little girl cried out. Her terrified wail resonated in the air as she fell from the sinking ship and into the sea, her tiny head forced beneath the fierce waves as she screamed.

Ellen didn’t think as she dove after her.

The water was freezing, a frenzied icy demon trying to hold her in its grasp. It stung her eyes and threw her about, even as she swam determinedly toward the sinking body of the young girl. Her lungs burnt as she pushed on, vision blurred by the water and her rapidly depleting supply of oxygen.

With a burst of adrenaline she forced her way through the water to the child, wrapping one arm around the girl’s chest. Her head swam as she kicked with her feet, trying to propel herself back to the surface, though she struggled to see it. All around her was dark and wet, and the frenzied icy demon that was the ocean wrapped its fingers around her and the child in her arms, its roaring laughter overwhelming her.

In that moment she ceased being Ellen Kiel. No longer was she a member of the Captain’s Council, an accomplished Lionguard, a woman of many feats, both strong and just. All the years of her life were washed away, torn from her by the icy demon, and she was just a child in a sinking ship.

'Mama, why won't you save me? Where did you and Papa go?'

'Please gods, send them to save me! I promise to be good! I won't steal candy or shout and I'll take my baths when I'm told so please! Please save me Mama! Papa!'

'I'm scared please help me Mama!'

'Help me!'

In fear she tried to hug herself, her weary arm wrapping more tightly around the burden she held against her. Her eyes shot open as she felt the little girl she still held, body limp.

Then with a surge of mad energy she kicked her legs, swimming frantically toward the diminishing light of the surface. The water tried to pull her down, but she refused to return to that dark place in the water, to the place where a little girl screamed hopelessly for her parents.

With a gasping breathe she broke through the ocean’s surface, pulling the little girl’s head above the water and gulping in air as she tried to gain her bearings. She blinked salt water from her eyes, sore and red, as she tried to remain above the water. Her free arm flailed and then smacked against wood, before being grasped onto by a large, furry paw.

'Captain Kiel!' Foecrush shouted, pulling her and the child into the small boat he sat in. Ellen coughed, water spilling from her lips as she looked at her First Mate, still trying to regain her senses. The world was too loud, the water and the wind and the sounds of shouting.

She forced her eyes to look at Foecrush’s worried face, breathing deeply as her mind slowly regained its grip on reality. She and her crew had gone out with Magnus to deal with a pirate threat. Instead they’d been caught in a storm along with a trading vessel they’d encountered. The merchant ship took damage and began to sink. She’d heard a little girl screaming and had dived in to save her.

The cogs in her mind finally clicking together, she looked down at the little girl in her arms. Compared to her screams from before, she looked peaceful.

Ellen’s heart twisted with horror and fear when she realised it was because she wasn’t breathing.

"No!" She cried out, placing the little girl down as Foecrush turned away and began attempting to row back to the Cormorant. The tiny boat they were in rocked madly even as though the storm was calming, the waves still strong and filled with the desire to consume all around it.

Ellen ignored everything else around her though, as she placed her hand on the unresponsive child’s chest and began to performing cardiac compressions. She had to save her, had to bring her back. She had a duty to protect these people. From villainous scum and backstabbing thieves and karka and dragon minions and the very forces of nature itself if she had to.

She was the law, she was their protector. She had to save them.

Yet the little girl still wasn’t breathing.

When Foecrush tried to stop her she nearly struck him, her arms sore and her mind wild as she continued to bring the child beneath her back to life. She breathed her own air into the child’s lungs, gave her the strength in her arms for her heart, yet the girl did not respond. Instead she grew pale, water trickling from her mouth.

Ellen let out a frustrated cry before slamming her fist against the wooden surface of the boat. Her body trembled as her eyes locked on those of the dead girl’s.

A little girl crying out for help as the ocean came to claim her. The gods never sent her parents, the gods didn’t send her Magnus.

The gods sent her Ellen, and Ellen had failed.

'You alright Foecrush?” Magnus called out from the ship, his voice loud over the fading winds. “Is Kiel alright? Is she breathing?'

"I’ve got her Captain Magnus, but the child is didn’t make it," Foecrush shouted back, catching the rope that was thrown to him. Ellen shook her head slightly as she tried to gain control of herself again, to become ‘Captain Kiel’ or even just ‘Lionguard Kiel’, to respond to Magnus’s shouts herself.

But her eyes kept straying to the little girl, and her mind went blank and fuzzy. She reached out and slid the child’s eyes closed as she felt the boat being tugged up. She had enough awareness to pull herself back onto the deck of the Cormorant before she fell to her knees.

Beside her she saw Foecrush clamber over, the child in his arms. She saw the scurrying of feet around her, the frantic movement of the crew mixed with the survivors from the merchant vessel. Her eyes flitted over as two enormous feet settled before her, and then she felt an arm around her waist as she was tugged to her feet. The last pieces of her pride and dignity allowed her to remain standing.

"First Mate, take command while I see Captain Kiel below deck," Magnus ordered, giving Ellen a small push. Ellen walked forward, listening to the other Captain’s loud footsteps as they escaped from the noise above. The two continued forward until they reached the Captain’s cabin, which Magnus opened and entered.

Ellen followed him inside, the groaning and the creaking of the Cormorant echoing around her before she was wrapped up in a hug. A huge Norn bear hug.

“This is why we got you a ship in the sky, you foolish idiot,” Magnus said, ruffling her hair like she was a little girl again. She didn’t speak, allowing him to continue. “I know you’re not afraid of sea or ships, or blood or battle, cruelty or criminals, but there are things even you can’t handle Ellen.”

Then he let her go and she stood back, her mind finally returning to its rightful place in her head, and the remains of her dignity forced itself into her spine, making her stand upright.

"Captain Magnus I-" she began, but he didn’t let her speak, simply holding up his hand.

"I’ll handle your crew, I’ll handle the survivors, I’ll handle this, so you lie down and sleep. Now,” he said. “That’s an order from your superior, Captain Kiel, not a friendly suggestion, not a bit of advice, but an order.”

Ellen stared at Magnus, then at the bed in the corner of the cabin. When she turned back to look at Magnus he’d walked over to the door and was already halfway out it. She opened her mouth to object. She had made a damn fool of herself before her crew, had failed to be of any use during the disaster that had occurred, and was now being denied any chance at assisting the survivors, of finding the parents of the little girl and telling them how she’d failed her.

'I doubt even I could have saved her, Ellen,' Magnus said, not even turning to face her as he shut the cabin door and strode back up onto the deck. Ellen heard him go, listening to the sounds of his footsteps and the groaning of the ship.

Then she turned and fell upon the cabin’s bed, her mind falling into the black abyss of exhaustion.

It was the only place truly absent a little girl’s screams.


End file.
